The Goodies

The Goodies was a surreal British television comedy series of the 1970s combining sketches and situation comedy and starring Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie.

Repeats and commercial releases

Unlike most long-running BBC comedy series, The Goodies has not enjoyed extensive reruns in the UK, the BBC in fact refusing to allow them since 1984. The BBC released two videos of the series in the 1990s, but did not seem enthusiastic about promoting them.

Related Topics:
Rerun - 1990s

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Sky's short-lived Comedy Channel broadcast some of the later Goodies episodes in the early 1990s. Later UK Gold screened many of the earlier episodes, often with commercial timing cuts. The same episodes subsequently aired on UK Arena, also cut. When UK Arena became UK Drama, later UKTV Drama, The Goodies was dropped along with its other comedy and documentary shows.

Related Topics:
Sky - 1990s - UK Gold - UK Arena

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The cast finally took matters into their own hands and arranged for the release of a digitally-remastered "best of" selection entitled The Goodies ... At Last on VHS and Region 0 DVD in April, 2003. A second volume, The Goodies...At Last a Second Helping was released on Region 2 in February, 2005.

Related Topics:
VHS - Region 0 - DVD - April - 2003 - February - 2005

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In Australia, the series has had continued popularity. It was repeated through the 1970s and 1980s by the ABC — although, as the show was typically broadcast in the 25-minute 5:30pm children's timeslot, portions often had to be cut. The unedited episodes were repeated frequently on the pay television channel UKTV during the 1990s. The DVDs are available in Australia under different titles to the UK releases. The DVD titles in Australia are The Goodies - 8 Delicious Episodes and The Goodies - A Tasty Second Helping, respectively. The Goodies' DVDs are also available in a box set with a commemorative booklet (The Goodies - The Tasty Box), though their content is unchanged.

Related Topics:
Australia - 1970s - 1980s - ABC - 1990s

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In the United States, the series was shown widely in syndication during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but has been little seen since. The series was also shown in Canada on the CBC national broadcast network during those same years, in the traditional "after school" timeslot.

Related Topics:
United States - 1970s - 1980s - Canada - CBC

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In Germany, The Goodies was shown in the late seventies as part of the variety show

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Engelbert and the Young generation.

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The show was dubbed into German, but because the jokes were more visual then dialog based, it translated very well.

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